Vallejo police surrounded a house for about five hours Friday in pursuit of a half-dozen armed robbery suspects, but came up empty handed after the residence caught fire.
Police said at a Friday night news conference that the suspects, described as being of various races, had fled to the house from a Craigslist-related robbery in the 1400 block of North Camino Alto. Craigslist.org is a popular free advertising website.
Police said an out-of-towner in his late 30s to early 40s told police he had arranged to buy an item at about 1:15 p.m. at that location. After arriving, the man was instead robbed and brutally assaulted by the suspects -- all reported to be armed with handguns -- before they fled. The victim sustained head injuries and was hospitalized as of Friday night, police said.
Police declined to reveal the nature of the item for sale in the bogus transaction.
A witness at the robbery scene told police the suspects fled in a green vehicle with chrome rims. At about 1:40 p.m. an officer saw the described car on Springs Road and followed it to a one-story house at 1041 Castlewood Drive, which later became the standoff scene.
The officer saw the green car parked at the address and then saw the suspects walking toward the white house. He then called for backup, police said.
Officers surrounded the residence, and with an amplified speaker tried to contact anyone inside the residence, but received no response. Detectives then sought a search warrant.
Police spokesman Lt. Kenny Park could not say who the registered vehicle owner was, nor could he say whether the suspects were related to the house's resident. Neighbors told the Times-Herald that a single woman -- seen weeping across the street -- had lived in the house. When a reporter tried to question her, she declined to comment.
Members of the regionalized Vallejo and Benicia, and Solano County Sheriff's Office SWAT teams responded to serve the search warrant.
At about 5:15 p.m., after further unsuccessful attempts to contact anyone inside, officers fired "non-flammable, non-incendiary C.S. (tear) gas" into the home. They then waited for the suspects -- still believed to be inside the house -- to surrender, police said.
Less than half an hour later, officers heard what they thought was gunfire coming from inside the house. A large crowd of spectators who had gathered on Springs Road were quickly told by police to move farther from the scene.
Shortly, heavy smoke was seen coming from the roof of the house, and the Vallejo Fire Department was called in to battle the blaze. A fire engine and an ambulance were already at the scene during the standoff as a precautionary measure, Vallejo Fire Chief Paige Meyer said.
Meyer added he called a second alarm for the fire because firefighters initially could not enter the home since police had not determined the suspects' whereabouts. Firefighters initially could attack the fire only from the exterior.
After the blaze was extinguished, officers entered the home and found no one. However, two dogs, one of which was dead, were discovered.
Park said police have ruled out gunfire as the source of the noise heard earlier because the house was vacant. When asked how suspects escaped a surrounded house, he said "there's always the possibility that the suspects fled prior to police arrival."
Meyer said that by the time the flames were extinguished the fire had rendered the house uninhabitable. No nearby structures were damaged, he added.
Meyer and police said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.
Staff writer Jessica A. York contributed to this article.
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